WORLD

President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump squared off Thursday in a debate watched by millions, and what voters saw may have sparked more questions than answers.

Donald Trump accused Joe Biden on Thursday of doing a "poor job" on the US economy and of presiding over a disastrous rise in inflation -- reflecting how rising prices and the cost of living have become key issues ahead of November's presidential election.

A former school district police chief in the US state of Texas has been charged and arrested over the response to a 2022 elementary school shooting that left 21 people dead, including 19 children, US media reported Thursday.

The US Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Purdue Pharma's $6 billion opioids settlement immunizing the Sackler family, which controlled the drugmaker, from future litigation.

Ursula von der Leyen has navigated back-to-back crises from Covid to the Ukraine war as head of the European Commission, and stands on the verge of a no-less tumultuous second term, provided she can lock in support from EU lawmakers.

The IMF said Thursday it expects the US economy to grow a bit more slowly than previously forecast, while praising the way it has remained "robust, dynamic, and adaptable to changing global conditions."

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said the "resilient" military alliance can ride out any political changes in major powers ahead of crunch elections in the United States and France.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday signed a 10-year security pact with the European Union in Brussels, the latest deal aimed at shoring up long-term support for Kyiv in its fight with Russia.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off for a historic US presidential debate Thursday, with the stage set for what could be an inflection point in the 2024 race as millions of voters tune in to the clash of rivals.

Israel said it does not want war in Lebanon but could send its neighbour "back to the Stone Age", as the UN's humanitarian chief warned such a conflict would be "potentially apocalyptic".

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is "rediscovering" life as he tastes freedom in Australia after a five-year stretch in a London high-security prison, his wife said Thursday.

Taiwan's government on Thursday urged the public to avoid "unnecessary travel" to China after Beijing announced "diehard" supporters of the island's independence could face the death penalty.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said Wednesday that the famed waterway continues to face a water shortage, despite recent rains alleviating most restrictions imposed following last year's drought.

North Korea successfully tested its multiple-warhead missile capability, state media said Thursday, as dozens more trash-laden balloons sent by Pyongyang landed in the South.

Two Bolivian army leaders have been arrested after soldiers and tanks took up position in front of government buildings on Wednesday in what President Luis Arce called an attempted coup.

The two men bidding to be British prime minister faced off late on Wednesday in a bad-tempered, last head-to-head TV debate before the country's general election next week.

A court in New York on Wednesday sentenced former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez to 45 years in prison after he was convicted of trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Republican-led bid to curb government contact with social media companies to moderate their content, a ruling that could bolster official efforts to fight misinformation in a key election year.

Compared to others in war-scarred east Ukraine, Galyna Poroshyna had been lucky to live in Toretsk, a mining town nestled in a relatively sleepy sector of the front line.

Women candidates are pushing for greater representation in Mongolia's male-dominated politics, raising their voices for change and inspiring girls to follow in their footsteps.

On Everest's sacred slopes, climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of hundreds of mountaineers who died chasing their dream to summit the world's highest mountain.

Lines on a map once meant little to India's Tibetan herders of the high Himalayas, expertly guiding their goats through even the harshest winters to pastures on age-old seasonal routes.

This pledge agreement was signed at WHO headquarters in Geneva to support critical health initiatives in Sudan and improve the challenging living conditions faced by its people.

Fighting raged Wednesday between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, witnesses said, as fears grow of a wider regional war drawing in Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah.

NATO's 32 nations on Wednesday appointed outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the alliance's next head, handing him the job at a crucial moment with Russia on the march in Ukraine and US elections looming.

South African scientists on Tuesday injected radioactive material into live rhino horns to make them easier to detect at border posts in a pioneering project aimed at curbing poaching.

Tom Maiani was behind the wheel of his car every night, all night, for two weeks in July 2023, as youths in French housing estates rioted over the police killing of an unarmed teenager of North African descent near Paris.

Iranians vote on Friday to elect a new president from six candidates, including a lone reformist who hopes he can challenge the dominance of conservatives in the Islamic republic.

Kenyan protest organisers called Wednesday for fresh peaceful marches against controversial tax hikes, as the death toll from nationwide demonstrations climbed to 13, an official from the leading doctors' association told AFP. The mainly youth-led rallies began mostly peacefully last week, with thousands of people marching across the country against the tax increases, but tensions sharply escalated Tuesday, as police opened fire on demonstrators who stormed parliament.